CLEARWATER, Fla. — The manager has had enough of the questions about his longtime leadoff hitter.

The leadoff hitter, interestingly, is less vexed by the idea of moving down in the order.

So it went on a topsy-turvy Tuesday at the Carpenter Complex, where Jimmy Rollins sat on a picnic bench and said he no longer was territorial about his decade-long reign as the Phillies’ primary leadoff hitter, while Charlie Manuel offered an expletive- and statistic-laced explanation of why there should be no question about Rollins at the top of his lineup card.

For years Rollins expressed displeasure when suggestions of moving him out of the leadoff spot for the likes of Marlon Byrd, Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth and Juan Pierre were posited. This winter the Phillies traded Vance Worley to Minnesota for speedy center fielder Ben Revere, who hit .294 with 40 stolen bases while largely batting second for the Twins last season. At some point, the 24-year-old probably will take over for Rollins in the leadoff spot. And Rollins acknowledged that.

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“Yeah, he’s definitely a leadoff hitter from what I’ve seen playing against him in spring training,” Rollins said of Revere, to whom he gave the nickname ‘Tootsie Pop.’

“He was batting second last year behind (Denard) Span in Minnesota, but he can definitely do it. He’s a fun guy, excitable, steals bases, doesn’t get thrown out. Those are things you have to do to find ways to score runs.”

Although Rollins said he remains a leadoff-worthy player — “and that will never change” — he has become accepting of the fact that he could serve the Phillies better elsewhere in the order if Revere can be a fitting replacement at the top.

“If you’re asking about caring (about moving out of the leadoff spot), that part not really as much,” said Rollins, who has discussed the lineup with Manuel. “There are more important things, like winning. When you don’t do it for a year, it’s whatever it takes.”

Then Rollins joked that he and Manuel, “actually talked today about him batting me fourth. I was like, ‘Charlie, you might want to talk about that, dropping Ryan (Howard) down to eighth.”

Rollins’ placement at the top of the order has for years been the bane of the Sabrmetric community, who point to his not working deep counts and having high pop/flyout totals as reasons he is a poor choice for the job. Yet the Phillies were able to win five straight National League East titles with Rollins at the top of the order and average 831 runs per season from 2003-09. The Phillies are 750-626 with Rollins batting leadoff, a .545 winning percentage. His 400 stolen bases since 2001 are the fifth-most in baseball, his 82.8 percent success rate in that span the highest of anyone with 300 or more steals.

Rollins’ one request is that his status in the batting order not be a daily guessing game.

Yet from what Manuel said minutes after Rollins held court, the veteran shortstop might not be moving from the top spot at all — not in 2013, at least.

“I don’t think you guys ever see the value of Jimmy Rollins,” Manuel said. “He gets 75 to 90 RBIs a year. He had 68 last season and he scored 102 runs. He’s knocking in the seventh, eighth and ninth hitters, who usually are slow and not good base runners. And why does he do that? Because he can hit doubles and triples and homers. He gets extra-base hits.”

That certainly is not something Revere does. Out of his 150 hits with the Twins last season, 19 went for extra bases (13 doubles, six triples). Rollins had 23 homers last season and 2011 was the only full season of his career in which he had fewer than 50 extra-base hits.

“When I see Revere hit and play, we’ll sit down and talk about where he’s going to hit and where he’ll help us the most,” Manuel said. “But no one is going to tell me where to hit somebody. I don’t give a bleep who you are.

“We’ll see him play. I’ve only seen Ben play three games (against the Phillies last season).”